Angry Birds Sets Up For Film Treatment

In the category of “Oh God no, why is this happening” news, Rovio – the company behind Angry Birds – has officially found a producer for, yes, the Angry Birds movie. The mobile platform game phenomenon, created in 2009, has received critical praise for its style and playability, and has – since its inception – released some odd four “sequels” (Seasons, Rio, Space, and Star Wars, respectively), and a spin-off title from the viewpoint of the Angry Birds lime colored baddies, the pigs (Bad Piggies).

So who is this new producer they’ve found?

No other than the man that helped put out the family hit ‘Despicable Me’, John Cohen. ‘Despicable Me’ was created on an estimated $70 million budget, and raked in over seven times that budget and scored an 81% on the Rotten Tomatoes scale. By all means, ‘Despicable Me’ was a stand-up film. But an Angry Birds movie? Really?

Well, the game franchise has scored over a billion downloads across its many platforms, and has taken the title of “the largest mobile app success the world has seen so far” (MIT Entrepreneurship review, 2011). Should the movie version move forward like the game has…it’s quite possible that whatever studio sponsors the film will be raking in quite the payday. As for how the movie will be made, that’s still up in the air. It will be released in 3D, so birds flying out towards the audience is almost certain. So far, David Maisel (former Marvel Studios chair) and John Cohen have signed on to help produce the film. No script or screenwriter has been attached as of yet, but that is probably the direction Rovio and producers will head in next.

Angry Birds has already spawned a Finnish television series, set to premier sometime soon after Rovio bought out the Finnish animation studio Kombo. They’re hoping they can put out weekly shorts to go along with the game itself, and perhaps the episodes might even lead into the upcoming movie – which is set for a projected Summer 2016 release.